TaxAssist Accountants has reached another major milestone for the brand as the national accountancy network reached a record breaking 7,600 qualified leads delivered to its network in 2015.
Senior Business Development Manager, James Mattam explains “We work hard to deliver good quality inbound leads to each office within the TaxAssist Accountants network each year and it has certainly been a record breaking year.”
“We delivered 6,600 qualified leads in 2014 and had been internally targeted to deliver nearly 7,000 at the start of the year and we were delighted to achieve and surpass the target in November. The franchise network are always happy to take more new enquiries and in 2016 we very much plan to oblige this request with further increases in lead numbers.”
Of the qualified leads provided to their franchisees, 1 in 2 leads convert in to fee paying clients. This could not be achieved as a network without a strong brand presence and professional training provision. New franchisees are provided with a week-long sales and marketing training course when they join the network and then regional training courses are offered to help franchisees and staff members of each accountancy practice be able to improve their conversion rate further.
Mattam continued “Our National Marketing programme delivered over £2.2m in new client fees, to our network of franchisees. Further clients come from walk-in business from our fully branded shopfront units, local networking and referrals. It’s quite a testament to the hard work and effort our franchisees and their teams put in, that so many clients are happy to recommend using our service.”
At the end of December 2015 the total client number amounted to over 58,000 clients, an increase of 11% compared to last year. The total fee bank is also up 11% on last year’s results at £38.7m proving the model and brand remain strong for this established franchisor.
2016 is expected to be another year of growth with many small businesses needing to put in place a workplace pension scheme for their employees. TaxAssist Accountants has trained its network of franchisees and staff to be ready to help ensure their clients have pension schemes in place ahead of the staging dates.
“We’ve already helped hundreds of clients comply with this new regulation, the next two years will see tens of thousands of businesses stage their pension schemes every month. We are beginning to see enquiries come through from business owners who need our help as their accountant is not auto enrolment ready, so this huge competitive advantage will increase our opportunities to win new business in 2016. Being ahead of the curve is why many of our franchisees join and remain a part of that TaxAssist network”.
The franchisor has also seen an increase in the number of new franchisees it has taken on in 2015 and has taken on 3 new franchisees for their February 2016 course while progressing a number of other potential franchisees through their business plans. With over 200 franchised territories and 270 offices where clients can meet an accountant, the franchise is growing from strength to strength.
